Consider that the weather is absolutely beautiful — and either discount the crowd-size or get over there and make it bigger.

I love this guy:

He had a whole traffic-sign theme going:

Meade got his name as David Rothwell — from the eastern shore of Maryland.

And I really love this guy:

Citizen Meade!

I spoke to him from the scene, where the phone battery is close to dying. I'll put up the video of the phone call in a minute, but basically he's having a great time amongst the right-wingers who, he assures me, are not crazy.

Wonderful! I wish I could be there, but my children need me here. I've done what I can -- countless phone calls, donations for ads across the country, donations to Scott "The 41st Vote" Brown's campaign, visits to my Congressman's office (Sensenbrenner, a good guy), local Tea Party rallies, conversations with friends and neighbors, emails, prayers.

Thanks, Meade, for being boots on the ground, representing all of us who can't be there! I tell myself, we also serve who only stand and wait.

On the day they took freedom awayThe sun was shining,Not a cloud in the skyAnd the temperature was just right.Much like the fall of Icarus in Auden's poem,Nature, if not men, had other things on its mind.

I doubt many in this crowd were happy about W's spending and defecit increase. His popularity was dirt low because he had lost not only any bi-partisan support, but because so many conservatives were put off by the ever growing fedreral government.

"How many of those people were a-okay with Bush and his big government programs and his deficits and his financial backstopping of too-big-to-fail firms? I'll bet most of were."

Are you talking to me? I'm not a Republican. And I voted for Obama. I'm sick of this Bush-did-it-too excuse, which I think Obama promised not to use. HE was going to change the way things are done in Washington.

I think Meade's trip, including his means of conveyance, is outstanding. I am impressed. The moment a year ago when Rick Santelli let loose on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade a lot of otherwise normal, easy going, get along smart people got into gear. Why, in fact, ARE we paying to bail out the guy next door who put on a room addition and bought a bass boat and vacations at a better resort than we do? Santelli's splendid rave awakened us to the fact that Washington was doing the same for itself as the profligate neighbor. Good for Meade and thanks to Meade for making the effort.

All the Conservatives I know were appalled and disgusted by GWB's runaway & irresponsible spending. It's a fundamental and perhaps willful misunderstanding of Conservatism to assume that we supported Bush's spending, or any old Republican. Fiscal responsibility is a cornerstone of true Conservatism. Not all Republicans are Conservatives. Not all Democrats are leftists.

Prof: All the Reps. fault? Well, maybeso. In MN, the Reps ruled for years, then the Dems took over and did the same darned harsh things they used to ding the Reps about. So, what changed except for the ruler's clothes?

Maybe the question is what will "Demon Pass" and HRC do to this country? You got an answer? Well?

The health care bill is good for America. The Democrats accomplishing something is bad for the Republicans. Easy enough to figure out what's going on here.

I'd like to know what, specifically, Althouse and Meade (and any of the commenters here) don't like about the health care bill. Point me to something in the bill that will get me to change my mind.

By the way, I'm thankful Meade isn't carrying a dumb sign like those other sad, foolish people (who stand to benefit from the reforms—unless they're millionaires). I'd hate to have to think that Althouse had married a teabagger.

IntheMood,Why is being against this bill hypocritical if they have health insurance? Does the government have the right to rob Peter to pay Paul for a program that won't solve Peter's or Paul's problem?

Health insurance is not a static commodity, like gold, that can't grow.

Let insurance companies compete across state lines--enact this and other fixes and you will see more access.

I'd like to know what, specifically, Althouse and Meade (and any of the commenters here) don't like about the health care bill.

The fact that it creates the biggest expansion of the IRS since WWII.

The fact that it represents itself as deficit neutral by sleight-of-hand and outright lies: frontloading taxes and not delivering any benefits for years, and pretending that it's going to cut Medicare by $500Billion.

The fact that it doesn't protect military family benefits.

The fact that it allows federal funds to pay for abortion.

The fact that it requires citizens to purchase insurance whether they want to or not. From my reading of the Constitution, the U.S. Congress does not have that power.

The fact that the Democrats are proposing all sorts of ridiculous procedural trickery to ram this thing through.

And if anyone thinks this bill is going to help this economy create jobs anywhere but in the government sector (hello, IRS & the dozen+ new commissions to be created), you're crazy. The taxes and new requirements on businesses will only prolong the joblessness of the current putative recovery.

How's the gay porn blogging business, Zachary? I love the fact that a 30-something who went from living with his mother to gay porn promotional blogging is giving advice about what's good for America. Presumably your health benefits suck and you're counting on the rest of us to pay to keep you healthy so you can continue in the cock flogging industry.

You think it's strange for people not to go public with their financial arrangements? We're not running for office. And you already know my salary because the state put it up on line. That's how much privacy we have.

But it's obviously not even strange. I have excellent benefits through my job and they extend to my spouse. Meade, as a self-employed person, was purchasing his own health insurance. Is self-employment such a mystery. You work for a big organization like the govt and you get a salary and benefits. If you work for yourself, you have to pay yourself and purchase your benefits.

Arguing that it's hypocritical to oppose this bill if you already have health insurance is like arguing that it's hypocritical to oppose death panels if you're mortal. We're all going to die anyway; why shouldn't the government be in charge of that?

I don't think the Democrats quite realize how much the ground has shifted under their feet. Three years ago, no one would take a 22-hour bus ride to a demonstration but college students, rabble rousing socialist true believers working for politicized non-profits, and union goons getting paid for their time. Ordinary middle class people with jobs and kids just did not turn out for this kind of thing. Practically everyone who supported the Million Man March or the Days of Rage was there in the crowd, but I think every Tea Partier represents ten thousand regular Joes who would like to be there but need to keep working to support all the freeloaders and spongers. And those people are not going to let this pass quietly even if the Democrats stumble across the finish line. From now on, anytime anyone has to wait more than fifteen minutes to see their doctor, we'll be hissing "Obamacare! Goddamn worthless thieving Democrats!" in their ear.

Ask him to show random members of the crowd a picture of a light switch and see if any of them can figure out how it works.

Julius Ray Hoffman says: How many of those people were a-okay with Bush and his big government programs and his deficits and his financial backstopping of too-big-to-fail firms? I'll bet most of were.

It's even worse; witness the recent "miss me yet" attempt. Not only that, but the TP "patriots" have sat silently by while their real leaders worked to keep a vital, very fundamental issue out of the tea party agenda. That issue directly impacts the things they claim to care about, increasing their taxes and reducing their power. Yet, they've enabled their corrupt leaders to ignore that issue.

The partiers are the lowest of the low, exhibiting a whole host of mental and emotional failings. It's a shame that anyone who's even partly responsible and who cares about the level of debate in the U.S. would promote them.

Unless you're still stuck in the 1960s, that is a perfectly ridiculous thing for someone to say he is going to do. I didn't follow the last presidential campaign at all. But that constant declaration that "together we are going to change Washington" was one of the few things that still trickled in to my awareness. It was enough to make me vote for the other guy. It's a ridiculous, absurd thing to say. And for someone to actually believe it! OMG.

And, while some rightwing leaders (very broadly defined) whined here and there about Bush, at the end of the day they supported him. There was no apocalyptic, apoplectic furor about him as there is about BHO. And, if McCain had won the same people would have continued: whining here and there, but ending up supporting him even as he worked against U.S. interests.

The partiers aren't smart at all, and their supporters are willing to lie through their teeth about things that everyone else remembers quite clearly. Their movement isn't anything that anyone who wants a real, grown-up debate about important issues should support.

When it comes to a politician, right now, Chris Christie, the new governor of NJ, is my hero. He might not look all sleek and GQ like Obama but he's seriously dealing with his state's fiscal calamity.We really have to take seriously our national debt. I was angry at Bush for the cost of the prescription drug benefit just being added to the debt. We have to start getting real about the ramifications of our choices. If we want health care for all, maybe we need to stop being the policeman for the world. Or maybe health care for all won't matter if we let our military capability go to hell.

ZPS wrote: I'd like to know what, specifically, Althouse and Meade (and any of the commenters here) don't like about the health care bill. Point me to something in the bill that will get me to change my mind.

I can't point to anything that will change your mind, but the reason I don't like it is here: Link. I was hospitalized for a couple days last December. The bills far exceeded my $10K deductible and the insurance kicked in just like they promised. Obama care will eliminate my plan.

Obamacare will also reward low income people who refuse to prioritize healthcare as a cost of living. Finally, like I never get tired of saying, he's doing this to avenge is mother's circumstances.

I would be a little concerned with the Meadester. I saw a live feed on CNN and I recognized him and he was talking with this chick on a motorcyle with a lot of tattoo's who was telling him he would look good with a little tiny moustache!

The "Don't Step On Meade" with the coiled loaf would of course be the parody version of the more serious "Don't Tread On Meade" version with the snake.Need to hit all the buttons and markets--this is America!

As usual, you presume wrong. I have great health care, but my premiums have gone up and I pay almost $200 a month for it out of my salary. If the government wants to offer me something cheaper with the same quality of care, I have no problem with that.

The only downside I can see to a public option is that tax dollars will go towards treating the morbidly obese, like Palladian, who's health problems are generally self-inflicted.

Althouse: Are you talking to me? I'm not a Republican. And I voted for Obama.

Well, again, some of us felt you were publicly anouncing your vote for Obama because you knew you'd spend the next four years trashing him and wanted to be able to say, "Hey, I wanted to like him. I even voted for him!"

Also, you stated you rejected McCain because he wasn't conservative enough. Sarah Palin was the candidate you spent the most time praising.

I'm sick of this Bush-did-it-too excuse, which I think Obama promised not to use. HE was going to change the way things are done in Washington.

It's just a fact of history that Obama stepped into office when the economy was collapsing. I guess he's not allowed to remind people of that.

You, however, enjoy blogging about how people across America supposedly miss George W. Bush, and how they should build a statues of Dick Cheney around the country. You want to advance that sort of stuff on your blog while scolding people for bringing up all the bad things Bush did.

The jury's still out on Barack Obama, as his first term isn't even half over. Yet you've wanted to declare him a failed president since about a week after he was sworn in. Why are you such a generous grader of Bush and Cheney but so viciously unfair towards Obama?

You pay 200 dollars a month from your salary? Yikes. You should try to jump from writing about professional cocksuckers to being one. I'm sure the "talent" does a lot better than those in the secondary promotional arm of the business.

"The only downside I can see to a public option is that tax dollars will go towards treating the morbidly obese, like Palladian, who's health problems are generally self-inflicted."

Ah, a fat insult! The domain of the chronic adolescent who spends his days writing about videotaped sodomy and who recently (hehe) lived with his mother. Tell me, dear one, are you also upset about all the "self-inflicted" health problems of those with HIV/AIDS? How about the "self-inflicted" health problems of the 49.6% of black women in America who are "morbidly obese"? No, you're just worried about yourself (yay! Someone else will soon be paying for my health insurance!) and tossing an admittedly pathetic little schoolyard taunt at me. You have no idea if I'm "morbidly obese" and if I have any health problems, self-inflicted or not. Here's a hint: don't get your personal information on me from anonymous Althous trolls.

So how's your spleen these days? Who paid the bill on that little episode? Shouldn't you be worried that maybe the next time you won't be able to get the medical care that was available last time you needed it, before the Democrats and the parasites destroyed the health care industry in America?

verification word: purged. Ah, if only the purge could come sooner than November...

"Well, again, some of us felt you were publicly anouncing your vote for Obama because you knew you'd spend the next four years trashing him and wanted to be able to say, "Hey, I wanted to like him. I even voted for him!"

Let me get this straight. Meade gets his health insurance from the government but he is out there protesting the government getting involved in health care. Keep the government from messing with my medicare.

In the Sovient era poster Pelosi obviously replaces the head of Stalin, because is says below: "Stalin's caress brightens the future of our children", which is pretty close parallel to what is happening, considering Dems and media slogans vs what the outcome will be if they succeed in passing Obamacare.

Obama's rhetoric is very close to Soviet rhetoric, as I remember it, and his policies and actions look more and more as taken from the textbook of KGB subversion, i.e. 'political and economical crisis as the second step of communist power takeover'. The first being takeover of the media and using it to confuse public values and perseptions, which was obviously accomplished with election of such an empty suit as Obama, to whom so many seemingly sane people gave their votes. McCain being an alternative is no excuse. Although he is certainly not the brightest politician around, but at least he has a record of service to the country other than writing mediocre books about himself.

Fat people!! The very cohort that makes my blood boil on this "health care" bill matter. Fatties chewing up more than their "fair share" of calories, chomping on everything in sight, fatties swilling the gigantic 7-11 cokes, fatties waddling in front of me in airports, sitting next to me in airplanes, trailing their fattie children behind them. You think these people aren't going to cost an arm and a leg?

Shall I publish Palladian's words and letters to gay porn stars here, in the Althouse comments? I would hope that his fawning over men who suck cock for money didn't negate all of his articulate opinions on Health Care Reform. Or, does someone so preoccupied with smut (who isn't even getting paid for it!) have no business commenting on politics?

The interesting difference between the Soviet press and the American MSM is that the MSM is doing this voluntarily. They can't wait to be sycophantic and to sacrifice their integrity FOR THE IDEA! They have NOT been taken over and ordered to write what they do under the point of a gun or the threat of unemployment, starvation, and obscurity. In fact, most Soviets (press and average citizens), at least by the 1970s, were deeply cynical and sarcastic about the things they wrote and read in the newspapers. The members of the MSM, many of them privileged, brought up in freedom and supposedly nurtured on American ideals of free press and democracy, have no compunction about lying about Bush or about propagandizing for Obama. They just can't imagine that eventually the crocodile will eat them too. Oh, but he will. Somehow, though, I can't bring myself to enjoy that thought if the price of their being eaten is the end of the best country the world has ever known.

"A lot of us have been saying for a long time that much of this, much of this, is not about health care at all," Clyburn said. "I think a lot of those people today demonstrated this is not about health care."

It's. about. bigotry.

They don't even know what's in the bill. To compare it to anything Soviet is downright idiotic. It creates millions of customers for private health insurance companies.

Mutaman said...Let me get this straight. Meade gets his health insurance from the government but he is out there protesting the government getting involved in health care. Keep the government from messing with my medicare.

"But it's obviously not even strange"

Nope, not as long as its being done by a middle aged white guy.**********************

Free clue: getting your health care through an insurance program OFFERED to state/federal employees and their families is NOT remotely the same as everyone being FORCED to obtain insurance by that state or federal government.

Do you think you can embarrass me with that material, Mr Sire? See, I have no shame. I mean, I commented with my Blogger account, do you think I was trying to keep it super seekrit?! "Simon Dexter" is a beautiful man. And I've looked at as much porn as any red-blooded American man. It's not something I'm ashamed of. As I said, I don't do shame.

I'm just pulling an Alinsky on you, Zach! And you're dumb enough to take the bait!

"Let me get this straight. Meade gets his health insurance from the government but he is out there protesting the government getting involved in health care. Keep the government from messing with my medicare."

1. I work for the state of Wisconsin, not the feds.

2. My health insurance is from a private company. It's not state run. And I have a choice of several insurance companies (and get to switch from one to another if I like, each October).

getting your health care through an insurance program OFFERED to state/federal employees and their families , is NOT remotely the same as everyone being FORCED to obtain insurance by that state or federal government.

From lurking here for months, I already know that you know a lot of things that just aren't so, and that you live in a fantasy world about what the USA WILL be like when Obama's visions will become reality. But I grew up in the Soviet Union so please spare me the statement that there is nothing Soviet about what's going on with our so-called health insurance reform. You know nothing about it, which is obvious from your comments, so don't even pretend to opine. However, you will have a chance to learn firsthand if things continue as they are now. Oh, I forget that you are also certain that the crocodile will not eat you. Foolish, foolish, child. Dream on. Now, if you are true to form, you will call me some childish names. Enjoy!

First, I seem to be making typos left and right. I will try to clean this up, but I might fail. Sorry if I do.

I was there this afternoon. I will post a few pick on my blog and send them to you guys later. I am right now recovering. You can tell I am not a professional protester, because I didn't realize I needed to "rotisserie"—I am now quite red on one side of my body. I am sure my coworkers will be very amused. I'd complain more, except well, I remember how much others sacrificed to give me the right to do all of that. In the scheme of things, a slightly embarrassing sunburn isn’t such a big deal.

I suck at crowd estimates, but the estimate they gave there was 25,000 and that seems reasonable to me. It was very hard to get metro parking, which was our first sign this was going to be a hit. I heard someone shout that this was larger than NBC’s viewership.

My favorite sign was "Impeach Obama's teleprompter." A lot of complaints about violations of the oath to uphold the constitution. I mean if Pelosi sued over Demon pass claiming it was unconstitutional, then what was she doing invoking it now?

There was one birther there. At least he had a sign about obama not being lawfully president.

There were two people sort of vehemently agreeing with each other, sort of almost arguing in tone except they were totally on the same page. One woman as very angry about obama’s behavior toward Israel.

There several very ugly photographs of fetuses aborted to drive home the funding issue. I kind of hid my sign. I decided to tweek the pro-choice people a little with the slogan on one side saying, "My body, my choice! No to Obamacare." A couple people missed the point I was making, but I liked the idea that some democrat might see it and think "oh, crap, we are even losing pro-choice liberals." My point was, how do you say you have a right to choose abortion, but not to choose your doctor? On the other side I was more straightforward: “Free people, Free markets! not big government.” In both I used the obama symbol appropriately.

Several times people just started shouting, "Pelosi's gotta go."

Alot of anger directed at her, especially her statement that we have to pass the law to know what is in it.

There was a guy with a horn, who used it in different ways. Like he would do a flourish, and we would shout, “charge.” I told one person near me, I was afraid they might misunderstand that as a plea to run up the deficit even more.

One thing that struck me is we started by singing the anthem. We ended by singing “God bless America.” I wondered if liberal protests ever sang either song. At the very least, I can’t picture the anti-war protests rumored to be somewhere else in the city using our national anthem with its rampant militarism.

At about 3ish, the wife and I had enough. We found a place to go to the restroom at the arboretum. We ran into this same family over and over, which was kind of funny. And while my wife was in line to go to the restroom, we met a guy who had driven all night from Missouri. I’m local, but that was pretty impressive. We also met people from Alabama.

I will take a moment to note that there was diversity there. Besides my wife, who is Filipina, I saw other Asians and even a few African Americans. To be blunt, you have to be a racist to think there were only white people there. Not that it matters, except to refute Keith Olbermann’s silliness. I saw one woman carrying a sign saying “I left Cuba in 1965 for this?” I would say I felt like I was about as likely to meet a non-white person as I was in any other context.

During the protest a man came through selling small flags, “I am a capitalist, two for five dollars.” That brought a smile to most of our faces and I was tempted to buy them just in appreciation of his hustle. We walked past the protesters now at the House office buildings. They were chanting at one point, “Nancy” in sort of a high pitched, sing-song sort of way, the way you do to irritate a baseball player at bat. As I headed to the metro station, a street musician (probably homeless, but you can never be sure), was playing Lee Greenwood’s “God bless the USA” on a saxophone. That’s the song that goes, “And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I am free.” He knew what his audience wanted. Finally, a guy set up a sign literally as we were coming in, “Down with big government metro!” Ha ha, zing, I get it. I was tempted to tell him how I faced discrimination at the hands of the state because I had disabilities, but I was tired and what was the point?

I don’t know if it did any good. But I felt I had to do something. Mr. and Mrs. Smith came to Washington, my wife, myself, and about 25,000 ordinary Americans. It may have been a lost cause, but we were not willing to give it up without a fight.

Hey Alpha,i have mine. I pay for it- twice what those poltroons, crooks liars and thieves pay for theirs- 300-600 dollars a month. They have vastly more coverage- any doctor, any hospital in the world and any kind of treatment. They have the same insurance billionaires have. They pay less than 25% of the cost. We pay the rest. They are not guaranteeing us the same insurance. They get the Rolls, we get the Yugo on crates.

I have mine. I pay for it. Gladly. But if I choose to drop it, what right does the government have to penalize me? To criminalize me if I do not pay their unconstitutional penalty? Being stupid, as you well know, is not and should not be illegal. Gee, I think they are getting your cell ready now.

I care not about you, them, or anyone else. Get a job, get two jobs, and spend money responsibly. Yeah, it is called self interest, self determination, self initiative, and personal responsibility. It is not Conservative. It is the American way!

See, I told you in advance that your reply to me would be nothing but deeply childish, foolish, unserious blather, and so it was. See, your specious claims can fool a lot of Americans (apparently 52%), whose imaginations fail them and who can't believe that horrors can happen here. But you can't fool the people who've lived through the horrors already, escaped them to come here, and are now faced with quite similar horrors except (for now) much better food and cars thrown in. You see, everything I know and have lived through has already been documented. Everything you know is (a Russian saying) "written on the water with a pitchfork."

So your prescription is to have 50 states pass laws subsidizing the insurance company practice of denying to their companies health care rather then the one nation outlawing the practice?

It's INSURANCE. That means you buy it BEFORE disaster strikes. If it didn't work that way, no one would buy it until they were already ill. That would make it impossible to keep solvent.

So yes, if the public wants a special safety net for people not eligible for regular insurance, they should make it instead of trying to regulate it into, and thus destroying, the entire market.

As for the name calling, I offered no defense of it. I only pointed out that it was nothing in comparison to this malicious bill. So harping on people to denounce name calling rather than talk about the bill is unserious.

No, "dumb and cruel" is a bunch of Statists taking over a sixth of the economy because they are so arrogant as to believe they can plan it better than the free market can manage it. Dumb because they're wrong. And cruel because this bill will lead to people's suffering and deaths.

Nevermind that they've already regulated health insurance and health care so much as to practically kill the free market for it. They assure you that if they just have MORE power, they can make it work. And you want to give it to them. Why?

> Again, where have conservatives denounced the slurs and spitting on lawmakers in the Capitol?

Um, wtf are you talking about? I didn’t see spitting.

As for slurs, there were insults, but I didn’t hear anything I could characterize as a slur. I never thought that was anything but the rough and tumble of politics. Besides when exactly did liberals suddenly develop a belief in the respect for those in government? They certainly didn’t show any to George W. Bush.

If your state provides health care to anyone who can't afford it why would so many people turn up for a free Remote Health Clinic in Little Rock? This is why people from outside of the US don't get the 'debate'. Is the clinic not valid? or just political?

Amen and poszaluista (sorry, but I don't have a Russian keyboard; never use it; write everything Russian by hand).

Yes, I know what you mean. These people NEVER want to hear the voice of experience, be it from the former Soviet slaves or from the current beneficiaries of the UK or Canadian tender healthcare mercies. Why, then they would have to think about what led to the atrocities.

That idealistic (moronic) bourgeois university student who donned a black leather jacket in 1917 and stood with Lenin on the armored car just could not imagine that he will have to witness mass terror, murder, and starvation to the tune of millions. He just thought it would be free healthcare, free education, free unicorns for life. But at least he had the excuse that nothing like that had ever happened in quite the same way. But now WE KNOW, and the Alpha Liberals of the world just WILL NOT listen.

If I could make every liberal in the U.S. read just one book, it would be Solszhenitzin's "In The First Circle," but for Alpha, that would not be authentic enough and would not validate our arguments.

I keep praying for the salvation of the best country on God's green Earth. Some days I despair.

Lewis was one of the most pivotal figures of the civil rights struggle. He spoke alongside Dr. Martin Luther King at the Lincoln Memorial during the “I Have a Dream” speech. And Alabama State Police fractured the Congressman’s skull as he led a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on what became known as “Bloody Sunday” in 1965.

“It’s okay, I’ve faced this before,” said Lewis of Saturday’s incident. “I haven’t heard anything like this in 40, 45 years. Since the march to Selma, really.”

Andre Carson is one of only two Muslims in Congress and was born nine years after Bloody Sunday. Carson conceded he wasn’t used to hearing such epithets.

“The beauty is that I was walking with a good sage who had been there before,” Carson said, who with Lewis at the time.

First elected in 1970, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is one of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“You don’t see any black folks in these groups,” said Rangel. “Ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.”

Rangel suggested that some of the protesters knew Lewis’s story and deliberately went after him.

“They knew what he represented,” he said.

Fellow CBC member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) said nothing would surprise him from some of the bands of health care protesters.

“I have never heard anyone campaign for their freedom to be uninsured. I’ve never heard anyone campaign against Medicare,” said Scott. “That’s what you’re dealing with.”

Kroshka,My students from Eastern Europe, Viet Nam, and Iran would agree with you. You would be soul mates. They feel sorry for people like Alpha who have the gall to think that they know the truth, that leftism is good.

Rumors of slurs are not supported by the video of the encounters with the metioned representatives: http://thedanashow.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/video-debunks-lib-accusations-that-slurs-were-shouted/

Will we hear any lefties concerned about Franks and Lewis and their 'reports'? Of course, if the media was interested in covering the event they would document what there was to document at and near Capitol. However, I would not put beyond MSNBC and Co to spin their coverage, when they come around to it, reporting to racism and homophobia rumors presenting them as facts.

@Kroshka:Of course, lefties know better. Otherwise they don't have any rationalisation for building 'bright future' for all of us. And don't you dear to destroy their fools paradise, you racist/homophobic/mysogonistic nazi wingnut.

Serious conservative-thinking people don't buy into "anything goes" actions, and not only would not shrink from condemning both stupid and immoral statements, but also would call out those among their numbers with the temerity to offer such unthinkinhg, self-serving, self-gratifying actions as spitting and employing "nigger" and "faggot."

Is it entirely dishonest for people in media, people on the floor of the house, people in blogs & etc. to take the words of the fewest and use them to smear everyone with whom they don't agree?

Of course it is. They're being both dishonest and gleefully disingenuous--and by my lights, that's as it has been for years now. They've made it as clear as day that my complete and utter contempt for them matters not a wit.

Assuming that what's been reported happened, I'd bet a whole lot that what we're talking about, at most, falls somewhere between 2%-5% of the people gathered there. Whatever percentage: FWIW, screw you, you dumbass people who so gleefully exercised your personal right to be bigoted assholes, the larger issue of freedom be damned.

By the same token, supposedly conservative people have continually enabled that. Take today. It seems they have no problem with morphing into that which they supposedly most abhor: people unable to either make distinctions or identify them.

What would have been so terrible about quickly coming out and saying,"If that happened, without question or reservation we condemn those words and the people who used them."? And then working to find out if it did happen--and, if it did happen, revising the previous statement to say, "That did happen. We without reservation condemn those words and the people who used them. Our cause is not about allowing everything. It's about preserving the best for the most."

a 22-hour bus ride ?!? y'know, there's this nifty new invention called an airplane that could have cut a couple of hours off his travel time.looks like a great event though..and nice for the folks that the weather warmed up.

"And, Ann Althouse, the health care in the bill is also run by private companies!!!! For PEte's sake! It's not a "government takeover.""

"Not yet, but it is setting things in motion in a way that will end there."

And the state of Wisconsin is not the government! But since I pay taxes to the state of Wisconsin I have to pay not only Ann's salerybut the health benefits for her and her husbaznd. And then I can come here and listen to the two of them bitch about the government "setting things in motion " ... which I gues might lead to others getting health care from the governmentjust like they do.

Im stupid, why don't I just marry an old lady who works for the government, sponge off her benefits, and then I can take long bus rides and talk about the American Dream.

My personal favs from the protest were the old guy you called Barney Frank a faggot and all the protesters laughed.

I doubt everyone laughed. Most of us in the back couldn't hear or see much of anything; especially those of us over 45, and/or short, like the lady in the wheelchair next to me. There was a lot of "What'd he say?... Who's talking now?... Where are they standing?"

Yes. Quite a few. As a matter of fact, the first person we encountered was a black woman handing out her list of reasons for opposing the bill. (Or maybe it was astroturf talking points... who knows?) I thanked her for it.

It was my first trip to DC, so I had to go see it all. I went down to the White House, and ended up catching the tail end of the anti-war protest. All that remained were a few dozen grizzled old guys, some who were war vets, and some younger folks with multiple piercings and tattoos, chanting and beating the bongos. Also, 3 or 4 twenty-something muslim-looking kids waving a flag that had Arabic writing on it. An old man mistakenly thanked a bunch of tourists for coming to show their support, when they were there merely to take pictures of the White House.

I had just walked past the WWII Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial- with the names of all those dead young people. My heart went out to these protesters. They were there because they cared about something important to them. I could understand that; I could support that. America is great because there are people who care enough to protest. (Trite? Probably. I'm tired. Who cares?)

PS- protest tip- Your protest sign can act as shade when you stupidly leave the sunblock in the car. I got burned anyway, but it would've been worse w/o the sign.

> What would have been so terrible about quickly coming out and saying,"If that happened, without question or reservation we condemn those words and the people who used them."?

I don’t have to treat as true something I know to be false. I have read enough of his account to now pinpoint the exact moment and I can say that we were chanting to him “kill the bill.” They were so far away, that 1) no one could tell who they were, and 2) no one could say anything but what was being chanted and be heard.

el

> a 22-hour bus ride ?!? y'know, there's this nifty new invention called an airplane that could have cut a couple of hours off his travel time.

You know, you can’t always get a plane ticket on such short notice.

Just lurking

> some who were war vets

Don’t assume just because they say they are war vets, that they are. the winter soldier debacle should caution us off of that.

> My heart went out to these protesters

Can’t share the sentiment. Only an idiot opposes us fighting in Afghanistan.

> protest tip- Your protest sign can act as shade when you stupidly leave the sunblock in the car. I got burned anyway, but it would've been worse w/o the sign.